Carried over from the Kitchen Sink
-
By Merat on Friday, June 06, 2003 - 12:23 am:

In the episode "Now You See Him" (1976), Columbo accidently knocks his menu off the table while at the magic act. The shot changes, and its back on the table.

By Benn on Friday, June 06, 2003 - 01:18 pm:


Also in that ep, Columbo is shown how a magic guillotine works. In the Eighties revival ep, "Columbo Goes to the Guillotine", the Lt. is once again shown how the magic guillotine act works. He acts like he's never seen such a thing before. On both occasions he learned the secret at a magic shop.

I just recently rewatched the ep, "Negative Reaction" with Dick Van Dyke, Van Dyke's character self-inflicts a gunshot wound to the leg to frame someone else. Columbo notices the powder burn on the pants, but the doctors somehow fail to notice it. That kinda surprises me. I would think that even in the Seventies, the doctors in Emergency Rooms would be trained to notice things like that and ask questions.

By Srussel (Srussel) on Friday, June 06, 2003 - 01:46 pm:


Merat: Over at the C&J board there's a board for classic Crime & Justice boards. You could've just posted this over there.

By Scott McClenny on Friday, June 06, 2003 - 05:11 pm:


Wasn't Columbo supposedly based on the police inspector in Crime & Punishment?

By Benn on Friday, June 06, 2003 - 05:32 pm:


Yes, Petrovich from Crime and Punishment was one basis for Columbo, according to Columbo co-creator Richard Levinson. What they took from Petrovich was the "fawning manner." The humbleness of Columbo came from Father Brown, who I believe was another literary detective.

By kerriem on Friday, June 06, 2003 - 06:12 pm:


Yep - as per GK Chesterton. His 'Father Brown Stories' are an odd admixture of mysticism and plain logic, but they're worth a look if you like Columbo's diffident approach.

Another fun factoid: The original Columbo, onstage, was veteran character actor Thomas Mitchell (best known as Pa O'Hara in Gone With the Wind). Later, when the concept was adapted for the TV-movie Prescription Murder, Mitchell was unavailable and the creators approached Bing Crosby, of all people. Luckily the veteran crooner was disinclined to interrupt his golf game for such a trivial project and Peter Falk proceeded to create a legend.

PS - Sax is of course correct, this thread is probably a better fit under his Crime and Justice Shows board (as are Due South and Charlie's Angels, come to that). Nota bene to prospective posters: This is a section for stuff that doesn't fit under any of the other established NitC categories.

However...I also like to think of the Create-Your-Own Discussion board as a way of spotlighting not so much genres as Very Special pop-culture phenomenons...so these three threads can stay, at least until the posters themselves advise me they'd like to repost.

By Srussel (Srussel) on Sunday, June 08, 2003 - 11:48 am:


I'd like to move this topic over the Classic Cop Shows (Discusion Only) area of the C&J board. Do the Roving Mods have that ability?

P.S. Charlie's Angels will be added over my dead body.

By kerriem on Sunday, June 08, 2003 - 01:05 pm:


Yeah, Sax, the Roving Mods can do that...but from my experience it'd be much quicker just to repost these yourself (with suitable editing, of course.)
Lemme know when you've got everything settled and I'll delete this thread...and next time, just drop me an email and we can settle the whole thing quickly and quietly, eh?

In "Murder With Too Many Notes", Columbo had zero proof and yet the murdered confesses. Why?

I gotta rewatch that one. The murdered, the victim, confesses? Forget, "Why?", I wanna know, "How?"

Rene, maybe he just wanted Columbo to shut up and go away?

Oh, and just one more thing...

Seriously, Rene. Was "Murder With Too Many Notes" one of the '80s/90s revival movie eps? I can't find in my Columbo Phile book, so I don't think it was one of the original classics. Can you describe the ep? It might help to answer your question if I can better recall the ep. Heck, I might even have it on a tape.

Benn, According to MSN Entertainment, it's a 2001 TV movie.

I'm not sure I've seen that one. I may have it recorded though. I'll have to check. Thanks, Scott.

lol. MURDERER! Okay :p

It's the one with this guy who's a music composer for the movies. But for the past few years, his assistant has been doing all the real work. So he threatens to go to the director and expose him. So the guy has him killed.

Anyway, in the end, all the evidence Columbo seems to have is the word of the girlfriend. No proof.

I never liked the revival eps anyhow - too sloppy, too generic, and featuring a Peter Falk who seems way, waaaaayyyy too convinced of his own eccentric cutesyness.

Besides, they played much too fast and loose with the original formula; one does not tamper with perfection, people! At least, not to the extent where Ed Begley Jr. and George Wendt are plausible murderers! And the one where Columbo's niece is kidnapped is just another boring police procedural. Nobody wants to see the Lieutenant's family, they want to hear him tell stories about them! Sheesh.

A poster over at jumptheshark.com makes an excellent observation that I think could maybe qualify as a nit in the basic formula: Every single murderer, without exception, sticks around to be harrassed by this dopey little cop. Even when they have no reason whatsoever not to develop a sudden desire to tour Paris or something. Yeah, I know, the arrogance of the suspects is part of the basic setup, but still...

What's worse, the murderers always tries to help Columbo out. "Ah, just one thing sir, that's been bothering me. Perhaps you could help me out?" If I were the murderer, I'd play stup1d. There'd be no way I'd offer any possible solutions to whatever's bothering the Lt. It seems like the minute you do, he suspects you. Nope, no help from me. You're on your own Columbo.

And I agree, Kerrie. The revival eps are vastly inferior to the original eps. And for precisely the reasons you cite. It just seems like TPTB were trying to make the show too hip.

Last week, A&E aired "Murder With Too Many Notes". I just finished watching it (finally). Uh, Rene, Billy Connolly's character, Findlay Crawford does not confess to the crime of murdering Gabriel McEnery. He does, however, allow himself to be arrested without any protest. There is a difference.

But you're right, compared to many classic Columbo eps, the Lt. doesn't really have anything on Crawford. Nothing very definite, at any rate.

Some other comments about the ep: Those dress shoes that bothered the Lt. so much, I think they were shoes that had laces. It's a shame the Lt. didn't pay attention to how they were laced. In the ep, "An Exercise in Fatality" (the one with Robert Conrad in it), that's how Columbo nailed Milo Janus (Conrad's character). The knots of the laces were tied the wrong way for the murder victim to have put the shoes on himself.

Next time you see the episode, "Murder With Too Many Notes", pay close attention to the man playing the director, Sydney Ritter. That's Richard Levinson, one of the creators of Columbo.

Overall, this isn't that good an ep. It moves too slow and lacks the one key element that makes for a great Columbo episode: the cat and mouse game that the Lt. plays with the murderer. There is very little interaction and/interrogation in this one to be very satisfying.

Incidentally, the script was co-written and directed by Patrick McGoohan, who has, I believe, appeared four times in Columbo as a murderer. McGoohan was also the Executive Producer of "Murder With Too Many Notes".

And if I'm not mistaken, about the couple in front of whom Gabriel McEnery falls, one of them was played by Dennis Dugan. Dugan appeared as "Theodore 'Mac' Albinsky" in "Last Salute to the Commodore". It looks a lot like him at any rate. He's not listed in the end credits.

I think whoever typeset the end credits for "Murder With Too Many Notes" screwed up. There's no way that's Richard Levinson playing Sydney Ritter. I think they meant Scott Atkinson. I just double checked the Internet Movie Database, the opening credits to the ep and the end credits. The end credits is the only place I see Levinson listed as playing Ritter. The thing is, "Murder With Too Many Notes" is copyrighted 2000. Richard Levinson died in 1987. Somoeone goofed.

What ticks me off is that Columbo's evidence is that the original score was stolen and thet Crawford is the only one with the motive to do so. Except...he has zero proof that there was an original score. All he has is the word of the girlfriend.

Well, that was one of his proofs. The other was the conductor's baton that Gabriel McEnery had. It was found inside the elevator shaft. Then there was the fact that McEnery was wearing dress shoes when he habitually wore sneakers. And the cut on his arm that had dried, while the blood around him after he fell was still fresh. And finally was the fact that the couple before whom McEnery fell, did not hear him scream as he fell.

That last one is really a questionable one to me. I'd imagine that a decent defense attorney could make mince-meat out that argument in a heartbeat.

A few nits for Columbo and the Murder of the Rock Star:

Dabney Coleman plays the murderer, attorney Hugh Creighton. Is he a defense or prosecution lawyer? At one point we see Creighton in court and he appears to be giving his closing arguments and asking for the jury to spare the defendents life. Yet much of the rest of the ep seems to indicate that Creighton is a prosecution lawyer. (I could be wrong on that one, though.)

Creighton learns his rock star girlfriend, Marcy Edwards has been cheating on her. He throws her out of the house. She blackmails her way into the house and his life. He then plans her murder. He injects some knock-out drug into a bottle of champaign and places it into the refrigerator. It's placed on the top row of bottles to left. However, when Marcy's lover, Neddy Hammond, takes the bottle out of the fridge, it's position is changed so that it's in the center rather than to the left of the top row.

How could Creighton be sure they'd pick that bottle of champaign?

Creighton asks Columbo if the Lt. knows who he is. I'm surprised that an attorney who has dealt with so many murder cases doesn't know who Lt. Columbo is. The Lt. must surely be a legend among those who jobs involve the law in L.A.

At one point when Columbo enters Marcy's house, it's raining outside. Then a short while later, when the Lt. and Marcy's housekeeper step out back, it's no longer raining and it's bone dry outside.

Just as Columbo is about to get his picture taken by the speed trap, he says that it's the first time he's ever put the top down on his car. That's not true. The top was down in the following eps: Last Salute to the Commodore, Lady In Waiting, Short Fuse and The Most Dangerous Match.

Creighton's one-time associate, now partner, Trish Fairbanks, provided an alibi for the attorney by getting the speeding ticket for Hugh. The speeding ticket was issued automatically by a speedtrap that uses a camera and radar to catch speeders. Fairbanks wore a photograph as a mask and drove Creighton's car above the speed limits. She wasn't in on the murder. She did figure what had happen. But yet, for some reason, she cruises in from Pasadena, runs through an automated speedtrap wearing the Creighton mask, thus being photographed and provides him with an alibi. Why did she do this?

"There's just one thing that's bothering me..."

Perhaps she was in love? Or blackmailed? Or she was just plain evil?

Except she'd have to know the murder was taking place to wear the mask and get the speeding ticket at the same time Creighton was committing the murder. Admittedly she does figure out he killed Marcy. And yes, she does blackmail him into marrying her (as well as making her a full partner in the firm). For her to drive home from Pasadena wearing the mask without knowing about the murder would require a bit of faith. How do you talk someone into doing that without letting them know you need an alibi? She doesn't know about the murder - yet.

And why wasn't Trish also arrested at the ep's end? She is an accessory to the crime.

"Oh, and just one more thing..."

If she's in love with the guy, and he tells her "I want to pull a prank on someone" or he tells her "I need to research something", "drive in my car wearing this mask from point A to point B at this time", why would she not do it?

That's a very big "if" and one I don't assume it. When Trish Fairbanks figures out that Creighton had murdered Marcy, she first blackmails the attorney into making her a full partner in the law firm. After that she blackmails him into agreeing to marry her in a few months. I don't think love's her motivation. I think it's greed. What better way to obtain the kind of money and power Creighton has than by becoming a partner in the firm and then marrying Creighton? For Fairbanks it's all about power and the Benjamins. And for her to wear the mask to provide him with an alibi, she would have to know beforehand that he's planning to commit homocide.

"There's one just one thing that's bothering me."

A couple of nits for An Exercise in Fatality:

In this one, the murderer is Milo Janus (played by Robert Conrad, aka James West from The Wild, Wild West). Early in the ep, he's kissing his secretary, played by Gretchen Corbett (who played Beth, Jim Rockford's lawyer in The Rockford Files). Afterwards, he and his secretary are talking. In a shot from behind him, Janus' right arm is at his side. However, in the next shot, one from the front, the arm crosses his body.

To give him an excuse to continue to question Milo Janus, Columbo starts to work out at one of Janus' gyms. The Lt. is in a sweatsuit. During Columbo's interrogation of Janus in his office, there are sweat stains on the Lt.'s sweatsuit. Then Columbo leaves Milo's office. Milo Janus steps out and Columbo returns to ask him another question. The sweatsuit is now dry.

NNANJO: This is one of two times that Columbo blows up at a murderer. The Lt. in no uncertain terms lets Janus know he thinks he's the murderer. The only other time Columbo's anger flares up like that is in A Stitch In Crime, the ep where Leonard Nimoy is the killer.

"One more thing..."

I'm really glad to have Columbo on DVD. The picture is GREAT! And no edits! Wonderful set, although I wish there were some extras.

I'm really enjoying the DVDs too (Season three should be coming out soon!). Maybe "they" are trying to prove that you can have a good set without extras, but it would really be nice to have some interviews, at least. Maybe on future sets?

There's an interesting phenomenon that shows up quite frequently on the episodes. Often, the initial murder is more or less an accident--lashing out in the heat of the moment. Later, in the attempt to cover up, a second, deliberate murder is done. A lot of those killers would probably have gotten off more lightly if they had just left well enough alone.

Regarding Columbo blowing up at two of the killers--apparently a lot of people disapproved of this, saying that it was out of character. Personally, I liked it--it made Columbo more human, to occasionally cut loose. Now, if they had done it a lot, it would have spoiled things, but just twice in the series was fine.

As for the new episode with Columbo's kidnapped niece-in-law--again, if they had done it more than once, it would have been annoying, but that one time, it was interesting, and exciting, especially the first run through. I liked how Columbo prevented the department from crashing in with sirens blaring. I suspect that he would have prevented the final shootout if he could have managed it.

I watched The Most Dangerous Match last night. A pretty well done episode, apparently written in the wake of Bobby Fischer and a resurgence of interest in chess.

The girl who arranged the match between Clayton and Dudek was Clayton's ex-fiance, Linda Robinson. Nice English-sounding name. However, she speaks with a noticeable, Russian-esk accent. Just where did she come from, and how did Clayton meet her in the first place?

Clayton sees Dudek slip out of the hotel and follows him. As Dudek rounds the corner of a building, Clayton rushes to catch up. He comes around the corner...and Dudek is gone. Clayton locates Dudek more by luck than anything else. Problem: It's a long distance from the corner of the building to the sidewalk, and Dudek walks with a slow, awkward pace, almost but not quite a limp. There is no way that Dudek could have lost Clayton, especially since he wasn't trying to.

Columbo meets up with Clayton as Clayton is preparing to sneak up to Dudek's hotel room. Clayton is wearing his hearing aid as he talks with Columbo. He wears it as he steps into the elevator. When he steps out, the hearing aid is gone. He sneaks down to the room and hides close by. After the valet leaves, Clayton goes into the room...wearing his hearing aid.

We are shown Clayton switching Dudek's prescribed medicine for other bottles and syringes. The implication is that he has changed the strength of the medications, so that Dudek will have a lethal reaction. How did Clayton get such medications? You need prescriptions for things like that.

Clayton told Columbo that he had won the restaurant game. Columbo tells him later that he found Dudek's notebook, where he noted the moves of all the games he played. The last game noted that White had won, and, as the restaurant employee had said that Dudek made the opening move, Columbo assumed that Dudek was playing White, and therefore had won. Clayton curtly told Columbo that Dudek had not played White, relying on Columbo's ignorance of chess--White always makes the first move. However...Columbo never brought this up again. I'm wondering if perhaps it was cut during the editing, because there was a perfect place for it--during the chess demonstration where Clayton was playing multiple games of chess--ten to twenty people, I didn't get an exact count. I could just see Columbo, in his fumbling, casual way, asking Clayton why he got to play White at all the boards, and Clayton scornfully telling him that in such circumstances, the single player always plays White...and makes the first move. Columbo would look at him, and Clayton would realize what he had just done.

At the end, in the garbage crunching room, Clayton was at the bottom of the stairs, and Columbo was standing a little above, shouting down at him. Clayton's hand is up to his ear, and he yanks it down, as though ripping out his hearing aid. An instant later, on the closeup, Clayton's hand is back up at his ear and he yanks out the hearing aid again.

I would really like to get hold of the (expletive deleted) person who decided that Columbo afficionados would enjoy an episode of Mrs. Columbo as a bonus to the third season set!

In "Any Old Port in a Storm" we hear Adrian Carsini refer twice to having a bottle of wine "breathe". The first time, at the beginning of the episode, he has an open bottle sitting in his office. After dealing with the minor matter of conking his half-brother, he brings the open bottle, together with a glass decanter, back to the other room. Since his hands are trembling a bit, he allows his friend the honor of decanting the wine, which they then share around.
The second time, Carsini is with Columbo. He tells Columbo that he has to open a bottle to let it breathe...only this time he pops open a bottle, immediately decants it into the glass decanter...and then puts the stopple in. The idea of "breathing" wine is to leave the bottle open, so that air can get it. Can't do that very well if you close up the decanter.

BTW, they mentioned losing a good bit of wine to sediment, and both times when the bottle was decanted, a fair amount of wine was left in the bottom of the bottle. However, the wine was poured through a cloth, presumably to help catch sediment. So why not just pour the entire bottle through the filter?

The relationship between Carsini and his secretary takes an odd twist. Near the end, as they are preparing to join Columbo for a special dinner, Carsini suggests that they start using their first names in addressing each other. The phrases he uses would seem to indicate that he wants their relationship to move to a more intimate level. However, after the dinner, when Carsini finds out that Karen lied to protect him, Karen blurts out that she cares about him, and Carsini is shocked and deeply disturbed by it. I got the impression that Karen was hoping that he would come to her of his own accord, but when he made his disinterest plain, she was willing to force the issue. But if he was disinterested, then what was with all that guff prior to the dinner?

If Columbo had swiped a bottle of Carsini's vintage port from his cellar, wouldn't you think that his raincoat would have been sagging in one pocket? Or a lump showing somewhere?

"I would really like to get hold of the (expletive deleted) person who decided that Columbo afficionados would enjoy an episode of Mrs. Columbo as a bonus to the third season set!"

Yeah, what a dumb idea! Levinson and Link, Columbo's creators tried in vain to stop that show from ever happening! They HATED it! So did every other Columbo fan. A horrible mistake.

I understand that with the McCloud dvd set, it too has a silly bonus: an episode of McMillan and Wife. If you like McMillan, you're probably going to buy the dvd set--which carries the same episode. (I might have it reversed--it may be the McMillan set has an episode of McCloud, but you get my point. It's a waste of disc space. Why not include some interviews, biographical information, or even (I'd love this) blooper reels?

I read somewhere recently that Peter Falk had never even been informed that they were putting the old episodes on DVD. Don't know if that was deliberate or if people simply assummed that "someone else" had already told him. Falk apparently indicated that he would be quite happy to do something in regard to the DVDs, so maybe...just maybe...we'll get some interviews or commentaries in a future set. Probably not season four--they are presumably already working on that one--but later, maybe? Please?

BTW, as I've gotten the DVDs, I've donated my Columbia House videos to my library. They've been circulating at an incredible rate. You can't miss with good material!

When I read synopses of the episode "Lady in Waiting", they generally imply that Beth Chadwick made up her mind to kill her brother after he told her that he had threatened to fire Beth's fiance if he didn't break the engagement. Bryce Chadwick is certain that Peter Hamilton only wants mousy Beth for her money, and will instantly drop her when he realizes the financial consequences.

Problem is, we see Beth stealing Bryce's house key (part of her murder plot) before Bryce ever mentions his threat. Obviously little sister has made up her mind to get out from under big brother's thumb, anyway.

The sad irony, of course, is that Peter truly loves Beth--as she was--and is prepared to lose his job in exchange for the priviledge of being her husband. He watches in dismay as her personality alters. Susan Clark gives a marvelous performance as a repressed woman who breaks out of her shell with a vengeance and tries to go too far, too fast.

A rather chilling little scene has Beth snuggled down in bed, happily popping chocolates as she waits for her brother to show up so that she can kill him.

The mistakes that Beth makes are in accord with a woman so desperate to break her brother's control that she doesn't think out all the possibilities carefully. It may seem silly that Beth didn't think about the spare, hidden key, but it's quite possible that Bryce, with his utter contempt for his sister, never told her about it.

According the The Columbophile, Peter Falk chose to make his demands to the producers during the filming of this episode, being "unavailable" until they agreed with his requests--which included being allowed to direct an episode. Apparently he assured Susan Clark, who was rather new at the game, that his ploys had nothing to do with her.

When I read synopses of the episode "Lady in Waiting", they generally imply that Beth Chadwick made up her mind to kill her brother after he told her that he had threatened to fire Beth's fiance if he didn't break the engagement. Bryce Chadwick is certain that Peter Hamilton only wants mousy Beth for her money, and will instantly drop her when he realizes the financial consequences.

Problem is, we see Beth stealing Bryce's house key (part of her murder plot) before Bryce ever mentions his threat. Obviously little sister has made up her mind to get out from under big brother's thumb, anyway. - D.K. Henderson

More than that - she put in an order for a new car, something that takes weeks to be delivered. So in other words, as Columbo pointed out in the ep, Beth knew she was going to be making a lifestyle change before Bryce's murder.

In this ep, also, Columbo tells Beth's fiance, Peter Hamilton (Leslie Nielson) he doesn't drink. Really? At least twice this season we see the Lt. accepting a shot of scotch.

What's Lt. Columbo's first name? The episode "Dead Weight" may have the answer. In that ep, we get a fairly good look at the detective's badge. (A screen capture can be seen here.) It looks like Columbo's first name is "Frank".

{"I really hate ta bother ya..."}

In "Short Fuse", why does Roger Stanford, Roddy MacDowell's character, have a British accent? (I mean, other than the fact that Roddy was British.) I mean, if his Aunt Doris is any indication, the Stanfords are an American family and logically, Roger should have an American accent.

While Roger's Uncle David is riding to Pinewild, Roger is in a bar with Betty Bishop, a secretary at the Stanford Chemical Plant. At one point, Roger checks his watch. Why? He has no way of knowing when his Uncle D.L. will be opening the box of cigars that has the explosives in it. And since he can't know that, there's no need for him to check the time, is there?

With "Short Fuse", three actors who appeared in a Planet of the Apes movie have starred in a Columbo. Roddy MacDowell, who was Ceasar (Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and Battle For the Planet of the Apes) and Cornelius (Planet of the Apes and Escape From the Planet of the Apes) is one. James Gregory played a gorilla in another movie. Then in "Suitable For Framing", you had Kim Hunter who played Zira in the first three Apes films. Sal Mineo, Dr. Milo in Escape, would appear in the Columbo ep, "A Case of Immunity" as Rachman Habib. Lou Wagner, who played Lucius in Planet of the Apes, appears in "Mind Over Mayhem". And then there's Ricardo Montalban, who was Armando in Escape and Conquest, was in "A Matter of Honor". Doesn't mean anything. Just something I've noticed.

"Just one more thing..."

"Blueprint For Murder"

At one point, during the scene where Columbo is talking to Eliot Markham in the lecture room, there's a shot of the Lt. pointing at Markham. The camera angle shifts, and Columbo's hands are at his sides.

Similarly, in a later construction site scene, the one just before Columbo has the pile dug up, there's a scene where the two men are talking while Markham consults some blueprints. In one shot, Columbo has his hands in front of him. In the next, they're behind him.

Incidentally, doesn't the aforementioned lecture room turn up in "Double Exposure"? The two lecture rooms sure look alike, if memory serves.

"Just one more thing..."

A few trivia notes for "Murder By the Book".

It's no wonder that this is considered one of the best episodes. It was written by Steven Bochco (SP?) and directed by Steven Spielberg.

When Ken presents Lily with an autographed copy of a Mrs. Melville novel, the title is "Prescription Murder", which of course, was the title for the first pilot.

We get a little hint at the beginning that the murder plot has been taken from a story idea (from about five years previously). As the two soon-to-be-ex-partners drive down to Ken's cabin, Jim comments that he's feeling a sense of deja vu. He finds it confusing, as he's never been down in the San Diego area before.

After Lily's death, Columbo is meandering around her living quarters back of the store, and finds a champagne cork. It's obvious that he equates this with the two bottles of champagne he saw at Ken's house, but he never actually mentions it to Ken or the local police.

That insurance must have been for a tidy sum. After all, Ken would still have had the royalties from 15 Mrs. Melville books coming in, not to mention the last, yet-to-be-published book.

Jim must have been sick and tired of Mrs. Melville, because it didn't seem to occur to him that he could still remain in partnership with Ken while writing books on his own.

Odd thing. Lily, with her general store on the lake catering to vacationers and local people, must have been fairly well known, yet no one, including the police, seemed to know anything about her.

Little less than a month until the fourth season!

Blueprint for Murder

After Peter Falk had fought and won his battle to direct an episode, L & L got back at him by assigning him "Blueprint", which they knew would be the most difficult episode to direct. Falk, despite having a bad cold at the time, worked very hard on the show, asking advice of Steven Spielberg and his friend John Cassavetes. L & L claimed that, though the directing was well done, it took a toll on Falk's acting in the episode. I really can't see the "manic" quality that they claim seeped into Falk's performance. I think that he did a fine job. However, the point got across, and Falk did not direct any more episodes. (At least not during the original run.)

One chilling note in this episode: most of the time, the murder victim either does not see it coming, or only has an instant to react. Here, Bo had a long moment to be aware that he was going to his death. I really don't understand why he went along with it. I would have stopped and said, "If you're going to shoot me, you can do it right out here in the open." Why make it easy for him?

At the end, the killer tells Columbo that he had hidden Bo in a storage shed. There was nothing to indicate that it was cold storage, which might explain the queasy expression on the guy's face when he went to fetch Bo. However, what was to stop anyone working on Bo's horse farm from walking into that storage shed and finding him?

If Columbo had thought to go out to Bo's farm and ask questions, he might have found out from Bo's training jockey that Bo distinctly said that he would be back in a couple days to check his horse's progress.

One thing really dates this show: Can you see a doctor nowadays giving a man a free examination just to while away the time while he is asking questions?

The killer got a scary moment when his tire blew out and a policeman suddenly pulled up behind him. He got out of opening his trunk by claiming that his spare tire had no air. The policeman said that he would sent a tow truck, which would have a pump for the tire, but once the policeman left, the guy grabbed out the spare and changed the tire. Wasn't he concerned about how the police might react when the tow truck driver reported that no one was at the scene?

After all the fuss that Goldie put up, I was surprised that Columbo didn't allow her to be at the construction site for the final confrontation.

I watched "The Most Crucial Game" again the other night. In The Columbophile, the author stated that the weakness was that there was no "little thing" for Columbo to pick up on that led him to immediately suspect Robert Culp. I think that the real problem with this episode is that there is no real motive for the murder.

Why, exactly, did Culp's character, the manager, kill off the playboy owner? What did it accomplish? Eric the playboy had threatened to fire him, but all Culp had to do was be a little more adroit in handling his boss. Killing him should have meant that Culp was out of a job. There was the barest intimation that Culp would prefer working for the playboy's widow, but neither Columbo nor anyone else seemed to pick up on it. No statement that the widow would now take over the sports empire. For all we know, she's going to sell it off.

I got the new DVD today. The only bonus is still another !!@@##$#%$ Mrs. Columbo episode.

Couple nits that I forgot to note for "The Most Crucial Game."

One I don't know that you'd classify as a nit per se; it may be that someone just got his line jumbled. It happens during the radio pre-game commentary, right before the national anthem begins. The commentator says "Today, all holds are barred." What exactly did he mean by that? The more usual phrase is "No holds barred."

The other took place near the swimming pool. We see Erik sitting in a whirlpool, apparently ordering a delivery of booze. (Culp is trying to reach him at this point to verify that he's out at the pool.) When Culp calls him shortly after, Eric is lying out of the pool, on what looks like a sliding board--and he's pretty much dry.

"By Dawn's Early Light"

Patrick McGoohan makes his first, Emmy-winning appearance on a Columbo episode. He's one of the few, the proud--the return Columbo villains.

The opening scene is interesting--we watch the camera moving through a house. The usual assumption would be that the camera view is that of the murderer, sneaking up on his victim--only it isn't. With no background music, we watch McGoohan meticulously preparing his murder equipment, then tidying up with equal care.

After the murder, Cadet Morgan approaches McGoohan with a message from the chaplain--all the men are in the chapel, as ordered. Problem is, a short time later, while Columbo is canvassing the grass and asking questions, we can see a group a cadets walking alongside a building.

This episode also has the first appearance of Sgt. Kramer. The Columbophile states that only Columbo himself--and Dog--would appear in more episodes.

Sgt. Kramer is played by Bruce Kirby, Sr. Cadet Morgan is played by B. Kirby, Jr. Not sure why they listed him just by his first initial. Both their looks--and their voices--are quite similar.

Columbo actually admits that he has a first name in this episode--but only his wife uses it.

There is a scene where Columbo is discussing a blueprint for a proposed alteration to the gymnasium. He's talking about what appears to be a locker room/restroom. I don't know if it's Columbo's natural delicacy in speaking of such matters, or if he was trying to force the commandant to participate in the conversation. He points out that if the locker room was meant for boys, then "it's missing something, if you know what I mean." He leaves it to the commandant to say bluntly, "No...urinals."

McGoohan maintains his character's integrity to the end. Having been confronted by Columbo, and forced to acknowledge that he had been out on the grounds by the cannon before dawn, he looks at the group of cadets standing by, and asks Columbo for a little time. You might expect him to say a farewell, or something profound, but he merely points out the amount of time they have left to get washed, dressed and polished up before breakfast, and orders the cadets who had been brewing cider to report for disciplinary action afterwards.

"Forgotten Lady" is a lovely, poignant episode, with a unique ending. Janet Leigh did a marvelous job. (And she looked fantastic!) Her face was very expressive. After killing her husband, watching the end of the movie, and going up to her room, she stares at herself in the mirror. As she hears Raymond pounding on her husband's door, a truly puzzled expression comes into her eyes. Later, while taking a break from dance practice, she sits with Columbo and he shows her a book that her husband was reading, before..."Before?" "Before he died." Columbo sits down and opens the book, not seeing the incredulous expression on her face. It seems to me that it's quite possible that she had forgotten, at that point, that her husband was dead.

Maurice Evans did a great job as the butler. His role was sort of a male version of the female housekeeper from "Double Shock"--both of them were extremely annoyed having Columbo hanging around all the time.

Found two little nits. After Dr. Willis walks out of his bedroom (presumably to the bathroom), Grace walks over to his bedside table and sets down her brandy glass next to the tray with his milk and sleeping pill. As she opens up the extra capsule and pours it into the milk, the camera is at a downward angle and we see the brandy glass sitting on the tray. When the camera switches back to the long view, she is picking up her glass from beside the tray again. Another one involved Dog and the ice cream. One whole side of his face is coated with ice cream, which Columbo refuses to wipe off. As Columbo walks away, Dog leans out the window--with a clean face. Later, when he jumps out the window and when he's under the tree, the ice cream is back, but not nearly as thick. Dog must of licked some of it off.

BTW, when Columbo was hanging from the tree, he kept yelling at Dog to get away, fearing that he would drop on top of him. Dog was at a safe distance the whole time.

I really wasn't watching the Second Season eps for nits. But I found a couple anyway.

"The Most Dangerous Match"

When Emmit Clayton enters Tomlin Dudek's hotel room to switch meds, he walks past a mirror. Look carefully in the mirror. Either there's a witness to Clayton making the switch or one of the camera crew is caught in the reflection.

The flap to the box containing Dudek's meds is opened on the right in the cabinet. However, when Clayton pulls it out, the opening is on the left.

"Double Shock"

As Columbo is helping Dexter Paris cook on the Pleasures of Paris cooking show, we see the Lt. roll up the left sleeve of his shirt. There's a cutaway shot and then it's back to Lt. Columbo as he rolls up the same sleeve again.

"There's just one thing that bothers me..."

"Double Shock"

As Dexter puts away the mixers, Columbo's left arm is folded over his chest with his jacket and raincoat, the right hand over his mouth. In the next shot, the right hand at the side of his head and the coats are held to his left side.

"Just one more thing, if you don't mind..."

One question about "Any Port In the Storm": Wouldn't the fact that Columbo stole the bottle of wine work in favor of Carsini's defense? I mean, what Columbo did was illegal, and I would think it could be used to throw out the conviction. Or could it?

In "Mind Over Mayhem", Columbo is talking to the Dean of an Obedience School. He complains that Dog never does anything. He says it'd be nice if the dog would "bark or something". Later in the ep, while the Lt. is talking to Murphy, the mechanic, Dog does bark. Constantly.

It seems to me that twice in this ep, Columbo mishandles crucial pieces of evidence. He finds the match in the ashtray at Dr. Nicholson's apartment and puts it into a handkercheif. Then he finds the pieces of the pipe in the driveway. The problem I'm having is that the Lt. does not have these bits of evidence photographed before he picks them up. This bothers me because without a photograph, who's to say that Lt. Columbo didn't just manufacture these clues? A photograph (and I do believe that there were crime photographers at the scene) would have firmly established that these items were indeed at the crime scene.

Hm. I thought, for this ep anyway, that Columbo was going to use a tape recorder for any notes and questions he had for the case. Yet, after the introduction of the recorder, we see the Lt. use his trusty notebook. Until the end of the ep that is.

Incidentally, note the name of the "boy genius" - Steven Spelberg. Kinda similar to the name of a famous director who directed the Columbo ep, "Murder By the Book".

For Trekkies, the murderer's son was played by Robert Walker, aka Charlie Evans ("Charlie X"). Similarly, for Sci-Fi fans, specifically fans of the film, Forbidden Planet, Robby the Robot makes an appearance in this episode. Here he's refered to as MM7. Presumably the "MM" stands for "Mickey Mouse".

In the blink and you'll miss him category, look for William Christopher, M*A*S*H's Father Mulcahy among the scientists in the War Room.

"Something just computed."

In the ep, "Swan Song", Columbo tells Mr. Grindell, the funeral home director, that Mrs. Columbo does "all the shopping" for the Columbo household. (Emphasis mine.) However, in "Double Exposure", the Lt. admits to Dr. Keppel that it is he, Columbo, who does the grocery shopping. Doesn't sound like Mrs. Columbo does "all" the shopping, does it? Of course, where Columbo is concerned, it could be that one of those statements is intentionally false, part of his act you might say.

When Columbo mentions he spoke to Tommy Brown's arranger, Tommy offers his name, "Nick Solecanto". It's a bit of an in-joke. This ep, "Swan Song", was directed by Nick Colasanto. (Colasanto was later famous for playing "Coach" on Cheers.)

"Are you with the Vice Squad? I don't remember having a good time."

Um, I've gotta wonder. In the ep, "Swan Song", Tommy Brown does to look for his hidden parachute. After he finds it, he returns to his car to find Columbo waiting for him. The point is made that Columbo did not follow Brown to the spot the 'chute was hidden. Yet, Columbo states he'd been waiting for Tommy on a rock at the side of the road. How could the Lt. be so sure that Tommy would be in that exact spot to recover the chute? It's not like Columbo knew where the chute was squirreled away. Yet, Lieutenant Columbo miraculously knows where Brown will go to retrieve it.

"Uh, there's just one thing that bothers me."

I remember Mr. Shatner, Keonig and Richard Anderson are in these episodes...

Also the Vulcan!

its been awhile.

"Forgotten Star":

Dr. Willis is reading a book called The Transformation of Mrs. McTwig. Unlike any book I've ever seen, the cover does not identify the author of the novel.

During his first conversation with Ned Diamond, Columbo raises his right arm. However, when the camera angle is changed, it's the left arm that's up.

The movie Grace Wheeler watched the night of her husband's murder is an actual Janet Leigh flick: Walking My Baby Back Home. Columbo states the film is "one hour and forty-five minutes long". In reality (according to IMDb), it's 95 minutes long.

Lt. Columbo must be a very poor mathematician. According to him, the film was over a couple of minutes after one in the morning. Yet, he persistently tells Diamond there's 15 minutes unaccounted for. If the film, which is an hour and 45 minutes long, started at 11 p.m., and ended at 1:02 a.m., there's actually 17 minutes unaccounted for.

The Lieutenant also claims there are only four possible scenarios for what Grace Wheeler did during the missing time. Columbo must really want to find her guilty, because he omits a fifth possibility: that Miss Wheeler was asleep during those 15 minutes.

As Columbo shuts the door at the end of the ep, it appears a face is reflected in on of the window panes.

This is, of course, the only Columbo episode in which the murderer got away. Of course, there were extenuating circumstances.

"Forgotten Star"?? The episode's title was "Forgotten Lady". My bad.

In the episode, "Identity Crisis", Patrick McGoohan's character, Mr. Brenner, repeatedly says, "(I'll) be seeing you." I wonder if that's a reference to his role as Number Six in The Prisoner? "Be seeing you" was how the various the people in the Village said "Goodbye" to each other. In both The Prisoner and this Columbo episode, McGoohan plays a spy.

In "The Most Crucial Game" (Episode 2.3), Columbo steps down the steps that lead into Wagner's pool from the side, from which Hanlon killed him, tastes the the water, and then tells Hanlon in the next scene that the water was fresh, with no chlorine, as a way to explain that someone sprayed that area with a hose to conceal something (which Hanlon indeed did). How could Columbo have discerned this through taste? Wouldn't the water have mixed with the rest of the water in the pool by the time Columbo got there?

Pretty good twist in the episode's last Act. We were led to believe that Nora had indeed been trying to kill Parks, and killed Jean by mistake, so it was a nice twist to learn that Jean herself had dirt on Nora.

In "Requiem for a Falling Star", Columbo sees an old photo of Nora Chandler and her late husband. Columbo notes that he was short, and later, in the episode's final scene, mentions how he and Nora were the "same height". But in the photo, Mr. Chandler is standing behind Nora, and is clearly taller than her.

I didn't quite grasp the significance of the Shriner's ring at the end. Why did it cause Nora to flee to where she had buried her husband? Did he have such a ring, and thought the police had already dug him up?

"A Stitch in Crime" (Episode 2.5), may have been the first episode of Columbo that I ever saw, possibly because the murderer is played by Leonard Nimoy. I remembered clearly how Columbo clinched Dr. Mayfield's guilt in the last scene: He found the dissolvable sutures in the surgical scrubs that he himself had to put on when he stormed the operating room, because Mayfield had slipped them in there when he appeared to try and shove Columbo aside when expressing outrage at the police's intrusion into his o.r. So when I saw it today, I looked closely at that scene. The first thing I noticed was that I couldn't see any pockets on the scrubs that either Columbo or Mayfield were wearing. It's possible that they used different sets when filming, or that it was simply hard to see onscreen. But more importantly, when Mayfield puts his left hand on Columbo's hip, where we are to understand the pocket is, at least three of Leonard Nimoy's fingers are extended outward, grasping Peter Falk's right hip, and do not at all resemble the position one's fingers would have to be in if they were trying to slip something in someone's pocket.

"Fade In to Murder"

NANJAO: This is the ep with William Shatner guest-starring as Ward Fowler. If you look carefully during the scene where Ward Fowler drugs his friend, Mark, a picture of Shatner can be seen in the background. It's Shatner as Captain Kirk.

In the crime scene, when Columbo first appears in the ep, there's a detective named Morella. Morella is played by none other than Walter Koenig. Interestingly, Koenig and Shatner do not appear in any scenes together.

Fowler's an idiot. Just after Columbo arrives in the morning with the news that producer Claire Dailey is dead, Fowler pretends to forget what he was doing the previous night. It's a very transparent attempt to set up an alibi for Columbo. No wonder the Lt. suspects Ward Fowler right off.

When Fowler says, "Probably just playing for time", Columbo's right hand is near his mouth. The camera angle flips and the Lieutenant's hands are in entirely different positions.

The DVD set to the Sixth and Seventh Seasons of Columbo contains a few errors. Number one, it identifies the ep, "Try and Catch Me" as a 6th season ep, presumably the season finale. It's actually not only a 7th season ep, it's the season premiere episode.

Season Seven as a matter of fact, is completely out of order in terms of airdates, which is at variance with the previous DVD sets which ran every ep in chronological order according to airdate.

On disc two are the episodes
1. "Try and Catch Me"
2. "How to Dial a Murder"
3. "Murder Under Glass".

Disc three has the episodes
4. "The Conspirators" and
5. "Make Me a Perfect Murder".

The proper order is
1. "Try and Catch Me"
2. "Murder Under Glass"
3. "Make Me a Perfect Murder"
4. "How to Dial a Murder" and
5. "The Conspirators".

In the Columbo episode, "Make Me a Perfect Murder", one of the important clues is some dry cleaning delivered to the house of the murder victim, Mark McAndrews. Columbo realizes that among the items included is a woman's jacket, which he notes is buttoned from the right to left. After the Lieutenant demonstrates this to Kay Freestone, the murderer, the camera angle changes. Look at the jacket again. It now buttons from the left to the right.

Why didn't the Lt. check the inside of the glove for fingerprints? They found powder burns on it? Why not check for prints?

Columbo was different that your normal cop show. For one thing, it wasn't a whodunit, but a howcatchem. You were shown the murderer right off the bat. The show's concept was how Columbo would put the pieces together and finally get his murderer.

The episodes would open with us being introduced to the murderer. We are then shown how he/she would carry out the murder and then cover up the crime. After that, Columbo would enter the scene. Upon meeting Columbo, the murderer would always be amused because it seemed that such an unlikely cop would catch him/her. Columbo almost always acted like a complete bumbler, however, that was just a front. Underneath he was an intelligent cop and almost always knew who the murderer was upon meeting said murderer. The trick was to find the evidence needed to make an arrest.

Columbo was known for the following:

-whenever he left the murderer, he almost always came back with the "just one more question".

-he drove an old looking car, which he described as a French car.

-he had a dog which he called "Dog".

-he didn't seem to have first name.

-he would make frequent references to his wife, a wife we never saw throughout the whole series.

Playing the murderers were actors who were well known at the time. Patrick McGoohan, Jack Cassidy, and Robert Culp all appeared on the show more than once, playing different murderers (these men were friends of Peter Falk). Also playing murderers were William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Martin Landau, Roddy McDowell, Janet Leigh, and many others.

Columbo was so popular that, in the late 1980's, it was brought back as a series of occasional TV movies, which continued up until Mr. Falk's health began to fail in the 00's (he died in 2011).

Also playing murderers were William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Martin Landau, Roddy McDowell, Janet Leigh, and many others.

The episode with Martin Landau is the only one where we don't not know from the start who the murderer is. Landau plays two identical twins, we see one of them do the murder but are not told until the end which one it was.

He drove an old looking car, which he described as a French car.

A 1959 Peugeot 403 Cabriolet, to be specific. More on the car can be read here.

That car is as old as I am.

he would make frequent references to his wife, a wife we never saw throughout the whole series

As I recall, Kate Mulgrew later played Mrs. Columbo in her own series.

But I don't think any of the Columbo people had anything to do with Mrs. Columbo (the show), and they were not happy about it and the show had a different name for the second season (Kate Loves A Mystery) and the character's last name changed, as well.

Yeah, they realized they made a mistake and changed Kate's last name to Calahan.

A few of the murderers on Colombo brought it on themselves, because of greed.

One such episode was Now You See Him. In that episode, a club owner finds out that a magician who is performing in his club, the Great Santini (Jack Cassidy), was a Nazi war criminal. Said war criminal, who's real name was Stefan Mueller, was a member of the SS.

Does this club owner report this to the authorities. Nope, he decides to blackmail Santini for half his take on the money his shows bring in, or he would rat Santini out to said authorities. Yes, this idiot thought it would be a good idea to blackmail a former SS officer! To someone in the SS, killing was another day at the office. Of course, he's gonna kill someone who threatens his safety, which he does.

Columbo, of course, solves the case and Santini is arrested.

The sad thing was that Santini has a daughter (who assisted him in his performances). Assuming she was the same age as the actor that played her (Cynthia Sykes), she would have been born after her father assuming his new identity. So it was likely that she knew nothing of his dark secret. Well, all that is gonna come out now. Poor girl.